communists. [ laughter ] >> how come i have never seen you shoot a moose? >> you haven't seen me shoot a moose, because i have. >> very well then. governor granholm, thank you. you have survived though >> jennifer: i'm jennifer granholm, we are in new york city. if you are looking for the best political analysis anywhere you have come to the right place. it's friday night in "the war room," and it starts right now. ♪ >> this is a bunch of stuff. look here is the deal -- >> what does that mean a bunch of stuff. >> it means it is simply inaccurate. >> it's irish.

>> we irish call it a whole bunch of malarky. >> jennifer: there was a bunch of stuff being thrown around last night but jolting joe biden didn't let them go unchecked. here he is on paul ryan's medicare proposal. >> this is a plan that is bipartisan. it's a plan i put together with a prominent democrat senator -- >> not one democrat endorses it. >> our partner is a democrat from oregon -- >> and he said he no longer supports it -- >> but put it together with a former clinton director -- >> who disavows it. >> jennifer: the partner is democrat ron widen and ron widen had his own response today, saying quote . . .

and that wasn't the only tall tail from ryan. here he is criticizing the stimulus plan. >> the vice president was in charge of overseeing this. $90 billion in green pork to campaign contributors and special interest groups. >> i love my friend here. i'm not allowed to show letters, but go on our website. he sent two letters saying by the way can you send up stimulus money for us here in the state of wisconsin. >> we advocated for constituents applying for grants. >> this was such a bad program and he writes a letter saying the reason we need the stimulus is because it will create growth and jobs. >> jennifer: you tell him joe. can you believe that green pork. paul ryan and the vice president didn't let much slip by

unchallenged last night. >> i don't understand what my friend is talk about. i don't know what world he is in. it is not true. it is not true. more people signed up -- if you notice he never answers the question. >> it seemed to work. in fact a cbs poll of undecided voters found that 50% of them gave the debate to the vice president. only 31% gave it to congressman ryan. cnn has it closer to a draw. 48 ryan 44 biden. that was of registered voters. a strong performance from biden, but a tie overall being called by the media frankly was what we predicted last week. but the tie goes to the president who is already ahead in the electoral college tally.

for more on last night's veep debate, we're going to turn to boston and alan schroeder, our resident expert and the author of "presidential debates: 50 years of high-risk tv." welcome back inside "the war room." >> thank you, jennifer. >> jennifer: in your opinion what was the defining moment? >> for me the take away was that interesting generational conflict there. i felt like i was watching a dad and son having a fight at the dinner table. and the age thing can cut either way. if you are the older candidate you look past your prime or you look wise and experienced. i thought that disparity there favored biden. >> jennifer: so you thought that

ryan looked like too youthful too inexperienced? >> yeah, he did. by comparison and also their dynamics. the way they were relating to each other. i thought it looked like biden was going to ground him at the end of the evening and take away his car keys. >> jennifer: i thought biden's showing years of experience calling netenyahu, bb and long time buddies, and he knows his providence so well. although i thought paul ryan probably had the names down well, but clearly he had not been there because he is not as seasoned. i'll just they. was the vice president effective in debunking the republican

misstatements and lies. >> i thought that biden did a very good job doing what obama had not done in the previous debate, getting all of those issues on the table, defending the record and really going on the attack. that debate was about mitt romney and mitt romney's proposal and secondarily about the president and his record. >> jennifer: the interesting thing about it is than even though jim lehrer was a much looser moderator, and president obama could have jumped in more quickly, he didn't. martha raddatz ran a tighter ship. do you think that makes a difference, who the moderator is? >> i do. and i think you saw two really contrasting styles there. march that's approach was much more journalistic. much more of an interview style.

even the focus and content were about things happening in the knew. so i did think that was pretty effective. >> jennifer: i think so too. she waited -- i thought she made a curious choice in waiting until the end of the debate to pose a different series of question about abortion and religion. do you think that changed the tone at the end? >> i do and i think that was her attempt to take the thing in a slightly different direction. it was like a one-two punch. she asks them about catholicism and then turns that into an abortion question. which was really revealing and an excellent moment for biden. >> jennifer: i thought so too, and especially since that was the first time in the debate

that they were able to address issues welltive to women. does this vice president debate fundamentally change the race? >> no they never do. thing back to 1988 michael dukakis had a bad first debate and lloyd benson mopped the floor with dan quayle and we know how that race turned out. it is a 1-1 kind of tie for obama now. but it is going to change the outcome of the election i would be very surprised. >> jennifer: all right. let's look at act 3. what is the most important thing the president needs to do. >> i would like to see him say a joke or something about his previous performance. i would like him to reassure

people that he wants to be there. and again your message out there, see it as an opportunity not an obstacle. >> jennifer: if you had to advise him how aggressive need had to be what would you say? >> he has to really think about what people in the audience are asking them. think of that audience as a surrogate for the entire american electorate. and really make that connection in a personal way. >> jennifer: who do you think performs better in the townhall setting at the next debate? >> probably obama but not by much. and i don't think it's obama's particularly favorite thing, it's just that romney is awkward in front of the real people types. >> jennifer: we're all excited about the next one. it's just like the final games

of these baseball series. alan schroeder thanks so much for joining us again inside "the war room." >> thank you. >> jennifer: all of you political junkies out there, it's friday night, i'm in new york and you are in "the war room." and the right's reaction to joe biden's performance equalled a four year old having a meltdown. any time kid rock and scene penn get together and the police are not called? well, it is a win for everybody. ♪ i'm born free, i was born free, born free ♪ people when i'm upset.

do you share the sense of outrage that they're doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. u>> i'm not prone tot. understatement, so explain to me why that is. i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa.

not a single thing he said is accurate. first of all -- >> be specific. >> i will be very specific. this lecture on embassy security. the congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for number 1. >> jennifer: congressman ryan

could not have been to happy about challenging him on that. congressman ryan voted to authorize $300 million less for embassy security than requested by the obama administration. that's just one of the many misleading statements about foreign policy that emerged from congressman ryan last night. here to help up dissect the truth, former secretary of defense, lawrence corb. so great to have you back. >> nice to be with you. >> ms. cutter criticized

governor romney because politicizing the libya attack. >> he spoke out even before libya. he accused obama for apologizing for basically the rise that occurred in egypt, when in fact what the spokesman said is we didn't support that crazy movie that was causing it. so, yeah he did politicize it before he knew anything. and when libya came out a lot of people assumed it was also the result of the movie. and general clapper, that's what he said in the beginning and then it turned out it was obviously an attack by a group of people some of whom had a small connection to al-qaeda. >> jennifer: what did the white house know and when did they

know it? because joe biden was saying the intelligence community had not informed the white house. what really hand? can you parse that out for us? >> well, what happened basically because this movie was making its way around the middle east. you had the -- you know the demonstrations in cairo, and then what happened in libya, people made the assumption in fact general clapper who was first appointed to a high post in the pentagon by the bush administration, he came out and said no, and the administration took that, and ambassador rice used that. and then general clapper came out and said no, we were wrong, and here is what happened. and once he did the administration changed the narrative. so what people are saying well you were wrong. well, yes, they were the intelligence was wrong in the beginning, but what was most

disturbing about what congressman ryan was saying last night. is first of all he doesn't know the difference between an embassy and a consulate. marines don't provide security for ambassadors. we had another group, security group on call in -- in benghazi so this idea that somehow you would send more marines don't guard the ambassador. a counsel late does not have the same amount of security as an embassy. and the request that he said was turned down, it was for triply. >> jennifer: so should the con

console ate should have that type of support? >> guarding the embassy is the responsibility of the host country. marines don't stand outside the embassy. the libbians are very very very sensitive about hiring private security firms or bringing more armed people in given the fact they still have rebels around there that were part of the group to overthrow gadhafi. ambassador stevens had eight people guarding him. >> jennifer: wow. that information needs to get out there. it sounds like yes there was an

unravelling of the information a bit -- or at least a leaking slowly, but in the end he is accurate that he wasn't told; that there was a request for additional security. let's listen to a sound bite from congressman ryan from last night's debate. hang on. listen. >> what we are witnessing as we turn on our television screens these days is the absolute unravelling of the obama foreign policy. >> jennifer: what is he talking about? >> well, again, what you see because of the arab spring is there are a lot of changes going on in the middle east and somehow he gives the indication that if we had kept power -- he ignores the fact that basically he and obama did in libya. and again, you can't blame the

president of the united states for what is happening in -- in syria. so somehow or another they are trying to take this one incident, where a group that had as much ties to al-qaeda as your local gas station does to bp headquarterers. so this is al-qaeda. no. they want to understood mine the narrative that obama has gotten the key leadership of al-qaeda. but they are not a threat to the united states anymore. they are local groups. >> jennifer: so fascinating. thank you so much for enlightening us as to what really happened. >> thank you very much for having me. >> jennifer: you bet. we already have a shrine to mitt's flips inside of "the war

room." i think we have to build a barrel. so how is ryan's malarkey? we'll get our shovels next right here in "the war room." presidential debate. with unrivaled analysis and commentary. >> was this the game changer? is this going to change the dynamic? (vo) the only network with real-time reaction straight from the campaigns and from viewers like you. >>now that's politically direct.

>> look these guys haven't been big on medicare from the beginning. and they have always been about social security as little as you can do. look, folks use your common sense. who do you trust on this? a man who introduced a bill that

would raise it $6,400 a year knowing it, and passing it and romney saying he would sign it or me and the president? >> jennifer: i just loved that moment. in that was vice president biden taking congressman ryan to task. according to factcheck.org congressman ryan's approach to medicare . . . couldn't have said it better myself. now to look ahead to tuesday's faceoff is katrina vanden heuvel, editor and publisher of "the nation." so glad to have you back inside "the war room." >> so good to be here. >> were you as surprised as i was about the malarkey coming

from paul ryan last night? >> stephanie: no. joe biden showed up last night. i kept thinking of those nuns on the bus who have been traveling around the country, the ones who have wrapped the knuckles of paul ryan because his budget is so mean. i thought joe biden spoke really straight about the 47% -- >> jennifer: that was my favorite part. >> invoking his parents. and i thought he really spoke to the middle class on taxes on jobs, on a handful of issues. >> jennifer: let's take a listen to a sound bite. >> it was sort of almost

unprecedented. >> i don't believe that i have ever seen a debate in which one participant was as disrespectable. >> you notice they didn't have anything -- on substance -- they had to go into how he looked. maybe he is a little aggressive. >> jennifer: and what does that tell you? >> that they don't have much to work with. >> jennifer: exactly. >> they are like duck and cover when it comes to the issues. you could hear it on taxes. he didn't have an answer. >> jennifer: exactly right. i loved the moment -- it was not good for america -- >> yeah, he was caught like a deer in the headlights. >> jennifer: and him saying that

all of these studies -- i'm going to talk about that a little bit later but that all of these studies show it's not doable. >> as bill clinton would say it's junk arithmetic. >> jennifer: it is. let's talk about -- of course martha raddatz raises the issue about choice and their catholic faith. were you surprised it took until the end of the -- >> yeah, because we're now into the second debate vice presidential, and where are women's voices. this is a race about battling for the hearts and votes of women. and i wanted to hear a question about women's health because it is an economic security issue, or how does voucherizing medicare blocking social security, impact women. >> jennifer: a lot of women were watching last night because of all of the ball games that were on last night.

>> that's right. but i want to hear more about women and their condition in this country. and i hope in the next debate that they take a page of elizabeth warren's play book. equal pay. >> jennifer: and he voted against this. >> right. and ryan played the angelic candidate, but he was cosponsor of todd akin to redefine rape -- >> jennifer: and i don't think he left any doubt on the part of viewers that the romney/ryan ticket will appoint justices -- two justice are likely to retire. they will appoint justices who will overturn roe v. wade. >> i was so pleased to hear him do that. we just did a special issue at "the nation" called the 1% court. the next president has the opportunity to appoint possibly four justices.

four justices are over the age of 70. so i think it is a very critical appointment, and this is a court that could not only overturn roe v. wade but robert bourque was a -- it has also debt with citizens united and it's critical. >> jennifer: it is critical. after the first debate the gender gap which had been favoring president obama was now basically even. what does the president have to do in the next debate to get that back? >> he has to talk about women's issues across the spectrum. >> jennifer: i beam interested to see if citizens united comes up in the next one too. katrina vanden heuvel thank you for joining us inside "the war

room." >> thank you. >> jennifer: and thank you for the battle in the nation. up next it was no surprise that paul ryan didn't go into detail about his budget last night, but what he lacked in details, he more than made up in falsehood. and later the moment every political junky craves brett ehrlich's reaction. >> there is no debating whether paul ryan has hairy lady legs. truly experienced presidential debate coverage. rich, chewy caramel rolled up in smooth milk chocolate. don't forget about that payroll meeting. rolo.get your smooth on. also in minis.

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i accept my church's position on aborg as -- what we call the [ inaudible ] doctrine. life begins at conception and i

accept that in my personal life. but i refuse to impose it on equally devout christians and muslims and jews -- i just refuse to impose that on others. i do not believe that -- that we have a right to tell other people that women -- that they can't control their body. >> jennifer: vice president biden last night really i think thoughtfully explaining his stance on a women's right to choose. in a year where planned parenthood and even legitimate rape are hot topics martha raddatz waited about 70 minutes before bringing women up. but at least she did bring it up. but one woman who never

hesitates to bring up women's issues. is comedian and co-creator of "the daily show," lizz winstead she is going to recap the whole election season in bang the dumb slowly, which is a comedy show in new york this election eve. lizz welcome back. >> thanks for having me. >> jennifer: i want to start the conversation by first giving our viewers a peak about what you are all about. or what you are all about. >> fair enough. fair enough. >> the average american politician wouldn't know a uterus if it hit him in the face, so why do they keep making so many laws about uteruses? or is it uteri.

[ laughter ] >> jennifer: can you please tell me what hit the poor man in the face. >> it was a lovely piece of liver. it looked something like a uterus -- >> it's the notion -- >> it's the notion of a flying uterus. but we decided that so many people i think are complaisant. don't understand what is at steak, and through comedy and big issues that can make people feel uncomfortable and watch it again, and talk about it we get it on the ground. because a lot of women don't understand what has hand until they end up at a pharmacy and they try to get plan b and the pharmacist says i don't want to give that to you. so i want to do it in a language that sometimes comedians can pull off and journalists,

right -- >> jennifer: totally. you are catholic and heard joe biden explaining the position. did you think that was a good way to bridge the gap between bringing in faithful catholics and the community in general? >> i think when it comes to issues of reproductive health there is what does a faith believe that is a god-given way of looking at an egg and a sperm and how they become something, and then there is the way that science teaches us. if your faith says life begins at conception that's your faith. science says that this living thing doesn't grow to be a human

being outside of the women until much later, and that's why we have laws that base medical issues on science, not on religion, so for me that's the perfectly correct answer to have on that topic. >> jennifer: i think it's an ambiguity that we will not resolve. >> yes. >> jennifer: i'm curious from your point of view you have this -- this effort to educate not just women but men, but a lot of times younger women do not realize that if they put someone like mitt romney in office that a supreme court -- the supreme court justice or two will end up being deciding votes on overturning rowe versus wade. is this comedy a way to reach those young people? >> i do. and what i have discovered especially in my live shows is when i talk about things and bring up a todd akin it's so

surprising to me that people don't know who he is. there are 20% of the people that go that guy is real? and you go yes it's real. so they google it and then tell their friends. and then they go to your website, and find lady parts justice, and you get a lot of engagement going on and even using the word abortion safe legal, and necessary, because that's that is a procedure if you are going to get a vaginal ultrasound it is because you choose to do so yourself. >> jennifer: there's one young women who's name is lindsay lohan, who must not have gotten the message, because she today decided she was going to endorse mitt romney. she said i think employment is

really important right now, so as of now, mitt romney. can you or president obama do anything to persuade lindsay lohan to get some sense? >> well, i -- i think that it's always helpful when someone like lindsay lohan comes out and endorses you. i think that president obama probably is actually maybe wiping his brow going thank got she went with romney. what am i going to do with the lindsay lohan endorsement. >> jennifer: exactly. thank you so much for coming inside "the war room." comedienne and author lizz winstead. and kid rock and scene penn getting together for a public service announcement. that's next. presidential debate. with unrivaled analysis and commentary. >> was this the game changer?

is this going to change the dynamic? (vo) the only network with real-time reaction straight from the campaigns and from viewers like you. >>now that's politically direct. [ crowd cheers ] [ male announcer ] clay matthews is turning the nfl upside-down. turn your world upside down with gillette fusion proglide because you can shave against the grain with comfort. only proglide has gillette's thinnest blades for less tug and pull, so you can shave against the grain comfortably. fusion proglide, our most comfortable shave or twice your money back. ♪ ♪ gillette the best a man can get.

you want to work with the congress on how best to achieve this. that means -- >> no specifics, again? >> we're saying lower tax rates 20%, start with the wealthy -- >> and you guarantee this math will add up. >> absolutely. six studies have guaranteed and verified that this math adds up. >> jennifer: six studies verified the math adds up. those six studies found just the opposite. three of them were blog posts. one was a wall street journal

op-ed and one was the romney campaign's own white paper. and none of them actually found a way that the math behind mitt romney's economic plan to lower the rates by 20% adds up. and that's according to "the atlantic" magazine. maybe that's why paul ryan wouldn't give any specifics. joining me here in studio editor at thomson reuters digital and author of "plutocrats: the rise of the new global super-rich and the fall of everyone else". a great title. chrystia thanks so much for joining us. >> pleasure to be here. >> jennifer: i want to talk to you about your book, but i want to ask you about the six studies that he cites. romney has also said that six studies mean that my math adds

up. >> as you pointed out those studies were not really studies. some of my favorite economists as soon as paul ryan said that started to tweet really madly because economists, you know for them a study means something, and i'm sad to say they don't consider a blog written by a mere journalist to be the same as an academic study. >> jennifer: part of it assumes this wild growth that will happen as a result of the cut in taxes. >> right. this is what a george bush called voodoo economics. you can cut taxes as much as you

want, as long as you are prepared to savagely cut spending. there is a lack of transparency shall we say in really spelling how much are you going to cut. and to accommodate that level of cuts and balance the budget require savage cuts. >> jennifer: today just quickly, because i want to talk about your book. there's a number of -- of objective economic indicators that have come out over the past few days that would seem to bode well for the president, which hasn't necessarily translated into polls. there is a five-year high in

consumer confidence in the stock market bloomberg came out saying the shrinkingage of government spending is at a 60-year low. will those numbers percolate enough to counter act what has been perceived as a bad debate performance. >> absolutely. the economy is starting to very slowly and tentatively heal. i think things are slowly getting better. but there is not a go-go economy. >> jennifer: right. the bloomberg -- there was a surprise index issued by bloomberg today which says that the economy is improving more than professional forecasters had predicted.

let me talk about the book. plutocrats. can you define that? >> i use it to talk about people at the very very top of the distribution, the 0.001%. that in the united states the threshold is making more than $7 million a year. >> jennifer: and the danger? >> two things. first of all to say to people you know, wake up the gap between the people at the very top and everything else is bigger than it has ever been in america. you know, it has -- it is touching the levels it touched in the guilded age. >> jennifer: and implications for the economy? >> the implications for the economy are -- i actually think we don't know for sure yet but

what is to me more interesting and more important are the implications for politics. because the people at that very top now are global in their economic interests, global in their economic activities and in contrast with the american capitalists of the 20th century, the henry fords who really depended on the middle class to buy their stuff. today's plutocrats are selling to a global market. and they don't necessarily need a middle class to prosper themselves. >> jennifer: so there's no loyalty here. >> yeah, one of the points i make that the left doesn't love s that this is a working rich. but the problem is their interests are different from those of the 99%. and they have a huge amount of

political power right now. >> jennifer: all right, you guys you have got to get this book. that is chrystia freeland of thompson reuters digital. one of the smartest economic writers around. and up next lindsay lohan gives her endorsement to mitt romney. that's something you can only find in "the war room" on current tv. ♪ >>i jump out of my skin at people when i'm upset. they're doing this this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>that's an understatement, eliot. [ dennis' voice ] i bet he's got an allstate agent. they can save you up to 30% more by bundling your policies. well his dog's stupid. [ dennis' voice ] poodles are one of the world's smartest breeds.

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>> jennifer: for our mitt moment tonight, we see governor romney is making more entities. peter berg accused mitt romney of plagiarism for using the friday night light's shows catch phrase. berg had some other choice words for the romney campaign. but we'll just suggest that next time, romney make a few tweaks to that. maybe clear lies full of malarkey malarkey, must lose. time now to for a visit to crazytown. kidd rock and sean penn teamed

up for a must-see civil service announcement for civility in politics. >> you know what man, you are still a freaking communist. >> and you still think you can see russia from your house. >> if it weren't for romney you would still be standing in russia. >> well, you know what they say, it's one thing to have an actor in the white house, quite another to have a bad actor. >> jennifer: the entire psa running ten minutes long and it is worth every second. we have sent the last 5 minutes going over the biden/ryan debate. but we missed a few things.

here is brett ehrlich with his keen eye or details. so shhhh, brett's talking now. >> oh, gosh what a debate the seasoned veteran scrapping with a young upstart. i would like to summarize that fore you but that was done months ago by our friend. >> mashed potato and gravies. >> mac and freeze cheese. >> mash potatoes and gravy. >> mac and cheese! >> pretty much what hand except paul ryan would never eat fried food. my favorite moment was when he talked about seeing his boughter's ultrasound. >> our little baby was in the shape of the bean. and we naked our first child bean. i think joe biden won the

debate. why did i say that? maybe it was how many times paul ryan retreated to the safety of his water cup, which by my count is a million-billion and one. but surely before tuning into this debate i saw these photos of paul ryan working out. they say you should picture your opponent his underwear, but that could not have been more embarrassing that this. the photographer had to be like i didn't believe he is doing this. and who works out in a hat? people keep talking about how much biden was laughing at ryan's statements. maybe it wasn't his statements. maybe joe just kept thinking about these photos. i'm done talking now. ♪ >> jennifer: thanks for joining us here in